Roundup of four Japanese automakers’ China sales in March

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Automakers in China have been gradually beefing up production and stepping up sales efforts to compensate for the outputs and sales drop caused by the COVID-19 spread. According to the data released by four major Japanese automakers, all of them have achieved remarkable sales growth in March compared to February. Notably, the decrease of Toyota was contracted to below 20% with its sales topping 100,000 units.

Toyota

In March, Toyota saw its China sales in March amount to 101,800 units and year-on-year decrease stand at 15.9%, 54.3 percentage points fewer than that of February.

For the first quarter, the automaker sold roughly 270,900 new vehicles in the world’s largest auto market, posting a decline of 22.1%, versus 25.5% drop in Jan.-Feb. sales.

It is visible that Toyota's sales have somewhat rebounded as the coronavirus has abated in China. Such products launched last year as the Avalon, the all-new RAV4 and the refreshed models of the Levin and Corolla are expected to help it rapidly lift sales there.

On the contrary, Toyota's manufacturing operations outside China are significantly disturbed by the increasing severity of coronavirus pandemic. According to Yomiuri Shimbun, Toyota on April 3 suspended seven production lines at five plants in Japan. Besides, it also said it would keep all assembly and component parts plants in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. closed through April 17. Therefore, the sales of made-in-Japan Lexus vehicles might slide during April in China.

Honda

Honda announced there were 60,441 consumers in China took delivery of its vehicles in March, a year-on-year slump of 50.8%. As the coronavirus pandemic has been diminished countrywide, the Japanese automaker saw the March retail sales skyrocket 435.4% compared to February.

With 32,205 vehicles delivered, GAC Honda clocked a 50.1% year-over-year plunge last month. Dongfeng Honda's retail sales were also more than halved from a year ago to 28,236 units.

(Photo source: Honda China)

During the first quarter, Honda handed over a total of 221,984 vehicles in the world's largest auto market, 33.8% fewer than that of a prior-year period. Of those, 116,348 units (-35.7%) were the contribution of GAC Honda; Dongfeng Honda delivered 105,636 vehicles, posting a decrease of 31.5%.

As of March, the Japanese company only achieved 14.3% of the 1.55 million-unit annual sales target it set for China market, but it has not lowered the goal even though the virus influence will continue for some time.

Nissan

Nissan's China businesses sold 206,551 vehicles (including imported complete vehicles) in the first three months, representing a year-on-year decline of 39.9%.

Year-to-date sales of the passenger vehicle (PV) and LCV (light commercial vehicle) arms slumped 40.4% and 38.3% respectively to 169,428 units and 32,354 units.

(Photo source: Nissan China)

Sales in March by Nissan tumbled 44.9% from a year ago to 73,297 units, but recorded a light rebound from February. To be specific, the PV unit (Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia) and the LCV unit (Dongfeng Automobile Co.,Ltd. and Zhengzhou Nissan) sold 55,424 units (-46.7%) and 16,337 units (-37%) respectively.

Nissan “has put business in China on track to recovery” despite the continued impact of COVID-19 spread across China, said the company.

As of March, except for a few cities in Hubei Province and in Wuhan, over 90% of Dongfeng Motor Co.,Ltd. (DFL)’s dealers and suppliers for Nissan, Venucia, Infiniti and the Dongfeng brands are now gradually back to work throughout China.

Mazda

Mazda delivered a total of 36,351 new vehicles in China during the first quarter of 2020, suffering a plunge of 30.7% over a year ago mainly attributable to the impact of COVID-19 spread.

The retail sales in March reached 12,958 units, dropping 28.3% year over year, while tremendously soaring 433.3% compared to February.

(Photo source: FAW-Mazda)

FAW Mazda saw its retail sales slump 30.3% from a year earlier to 5,314 units in March, making its year-to-date sales total 14,106 units (-28.3%). Although the growth still remained negative, the joint venture surpassed the first-quarter delivery target with its market share rising to 0.47%.

Mazda said the retail sales for Changan Mazda reached 7,644 units in March and 22,245 units for the first three months. After a calculation based on earlier data, we found out that the joint venture's decrease in March and the first quarter stood at 26.8% and 32.1%.

With 5,669 units delivered, the Mazda 3 Axela developed by Changan Mazda was still the best-seller of March. From Jan. to Mar., 17,326 consumers took delivery of the popular car model.